Just William - The Musical - An Introduction.

Hello! Welcome to my blog documenting the progress of the musical I am writing of "Just William".

This musical is being written as an examination piece for my MA in Musical Theatre at Goldsmith's College - which is part of the University of London.

Just William, for those of you who don't know, is a very famous British set of short stories written over 5 decades in the 20th Century - from the 1920s all the way to the late 1960's. The stories, written by authoress Richmal Crompton (below).

Each story usually focuses on William Brown (an 11 year old boy) and his best friends (Ginger, Henry and Douglas - commonly known as The Outlaws), and their efforts to help - or in some way - improve their, or someone else's lives. The stories also focus on the stupidity of grown-ups, the intelligence of William and his determination to help - usually thwarted by grown-ups!

However, when writing the musical, it occurred to my director (Albin Balint) and me that there is a strong theme of class within the stories - and the conflicts within class. I made the decision to only have musical numbers sung only by characters who are intruders to William's life. This was done for a few reasons. One being no 11 year old boy is one to sing - an 11 year old boy would rather release his emotional energy by dancing and moving. Secondly, William's stand-out moments (to me) are his energetic outbursts of eloquence - and they are not represented musically, just through speech. Also, William's style of speech is not really suitable for lyrical writing (William has his own way of dialect - "I aint done nothin' wrong, mother - it was Hubert Lane what did it!").

So - the point of this blog is to document the development progress of the production - from readthroughs, meetings, rehearsals and the final production.

Enjoy!